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Video Evidence And Summary Judgment: The Procedure Of Scott V. Harris, Howard Wasserman
Video Evidence And Summary Judgment: The Procedure Of Scott V. Harris, Howard Wasserman
Howard M Wasserman
In Scott v. Harris (2007), the Supreme Court granted summary judgment on a Fourth Amendment excessive-force claim brought by a motorist injured when a pursuing law-enforcement officer terminated a high-speed pursuit by bumping the plaintiff's car. The Court relied almost exclusively on a video of the chase captured from the officer's dash-mounted camera and disregarded witness testimony that contradicted the video. In granting summary judgment in this circumstance, the Court fell sway to the myth of video evidence as able to speak for itself, as an objective, unambiguous, and singularly accurate depiction of real-world events, not subject to any interpretation …
Rejecting Sovereign Immunity In Public Law Litigation, Howard M. Wasserman
Rejecting Sovereign Immunity In Public Law Litigation, Howard M. Wasserman
Howard M Wasserman
No abstract provided.
Moral Panics And Body Cameras, Howard M. Wasserman
Moral Panics And Body Cameras, Howard M. Wasserman
Howard M Wasserman
This Commentary uses the lens of "moral panics" to evaluate public support for equipping law enforcement with body cameras as a response and solution to events in Ferguson, Missouri in August 2014. Body cameras are a generally good policy idea. But the rhetoric surrounding them erroneously treats them as the single guaranteed solution to the problem of excessive force and police-citizen conflicts, particularly by ignoring the limitations of video evidence and the difficult questions of implementing any body camera program. In overstating the case, the rhetoric of body cameras becomes indistinguishable from rhetoric surrounding responses to past moral panics.
Epilogue: Moral Panics And Body Cameras, Howard M. Wasserman
Epilogue: Moral Panics And Body Cameras, Howard M. Wasserman
Howard M Wasserman
This brief follow-up to Moral Panics and Body Cameras comments on the weeks after that essay was published and what those events show about the efficacy of body cameras and video evidence as a response to police-public conflicts.